The Met: Lehmann Wing

The Met has many storied donors, and most have been satisfied to have their gifts integrated into the museum's various collections, departments and divisions, as curators and educators saw fit. You're apt to find a Carnegie or Morgan or Rockefeller item anywhere. Not so the Lehmanns, who specified that their collection be kept together and indeed in a special building, the Lehmann Wing. I guess you can do that when you're a major benefactor and also chair of the board. Anyhow, we toured the Lehmann Wing on October 15th. There is much that is impressive, but we were taken mostly by the paintings.

Deruta, plate inscribed "he who washes the head of an ass wastes the
soap," 1550

Part of a whole room of dishes, cups, bowls, etc.

Another 16th century plate, this one inscribed to Pope Julius II,
patron of Bramante, Raphael, Michaelangelo 

Nice ceiling treatment

A Botticelli Annunciation, late 15th

Memling, Annunciation, late 15th

Petrus Christus, "What do you mean, it's not 22 carat?!" or
"Darling, maybe you could take your headphones off for a
moment," mid-15th

Nice Cranach showcase

Giovanni de Paulo, The Creation of the World and The Expulsion from
Paradise, mid-15th; two-fer

Giovanni de Pailo, Coronation of the Virgin, mid-15th

Osservansa Master, St. Anthony Abbot in the Wilderness, 
tempera on panel, c 1435; a striking piece, I thought, 
for its vintage

Rembrandt, Portrait of a Woman, 1632

Ditto...a man...1632...smaller collar

Last Supper tapestry, early 16th, Netherlandish 

Ingres, Portrait of Josephine-Eleomore-Marie-Pauline de Gallard
[I swear I am not making this up] de Bressac de Bearn; aka the
Princesse de Broglie; 1851; mostly she just went by "Jo"

Degas, View of Saint Valery-Sur-Somme, 1898

Renoir, Sea and Cliffs, 1885

Corot, Diana and Acteon, 1836

The Met: 5th Avenue Medieval Stuff

On October 14th and 15th we were back in the Met, doing the Medieval tour and back-filling some other areas we had visited earlier. Of course we had already seen a good deal of the Met's Medieval collection up at the Cloisters...the Met's impressive collection of aquamaniles will require a separate post...

Hunting with a Hawk, south Netherlands, 1513

Madonna and Child, south somewhere, Medieval

Life and Miracles of St. Godelieve, Master of the St. Godelieve series,
Netherlandish, late 15th, oil on panel

St. Bridget de Bardot, Master of Soebeck, walnut,
late 15th

Bishop John Fisher, Pietro Torrigiano, early 16th; polychrome
terracotta; Fisher was beheaded by Henry VIII for not going
along with the divorce/remarriage scheme; Torrigiano was the
guy who cold-cocked Michaelangelo, thus permanently disfiguring
the latter's nose

Hunters in a Landscape, Swiss/English, mid-16th

Interesting detail thereof

Silver flagons, John Blackwell, silver, mid-17th; perhaps we had drifted
out of the Medieval section...

Scene from the Legend of St. Vincent of Saragossa, from
the lady chapel of the church at St. Germain de Pres, Paris,
mid-13th

Pilgrim's badge for visiting shrine of St. Thomas, Canterbury,
13th or 14th

Up closer: sort of like Disney pins...collect the whole set and you
get into the Lightning Lane to heaven

On The Avenue, Fifth Avenue

Thus edified about the Rise of Painting, we elected to spend the rest of the day walking down 5th Avenue from the Met, all the way to St. Patrick's Cathedral. Much more edification awaited...

On the Avenue

Temple  Emanuel

Land of the tall skinnies

General Sherman and special lady friend; strangely,
we missed the Sherman statue in Savannah

The legendary Plaza Hotel

In the dining area; rare art nouveau in NYC

Barad-dur

Anti-Trump merch

Another of the early skyscrapers, the Peninsula Building;
formerly the Gotham Building

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Important stop for popes

Provision for seats with obstructed view

Elevation

Pomp and pageantry with the installation or somesuch of members of
The Equestrian Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher (not to be 
confused with the Knights Templar)

Dames as well as knights; their job is to ensure a Christian presence in
the Holy Land; or somesuch; minimum $1,000 fee plus having been to
the Holy Land; more lofty titles available; prices vary; consult your
local priest

Glass; probably not 13th century

Chancel

Gotham blue?

Knave view

On the return, an impersonator directing traffic in front
of Trump Tower 

Walking back home through the Park